Top 5-Cat Stuck in Washer, Survives Cycle-Lucky

It's not an award any pet lover would be proud of, and if you're fastidious about not mixing your darks and lights, you'll probably have a conniption fit. But like it or not, Daryl Humdy of Oakland, Calif. has been awarded a top prize by a pet insurance company after his Siberian Forest cat, "Natasha" accidentally went through an entire

wash cycle that lasted 35 minutes, a 'cat'astrophe by any means. Miraculously, though, Natasha made it out alive. But the six-month-old feline did suffer severe hypothermia and a trip to the emergency animal hospital, earning Natasha the "Most Unusual Claim Award," by the Brea-based Veterinary Pet Insurance. The company bills itself as the oldest and largest pet insurance provider in the country.

“My roommate was loading his laundry and left the lid to the washing machine open while he went to the next room to grab more clothes,” Daryl Humdy said in a statement, because he was unavaillable on Tuesday to go on camera with NBC Bay Area. “He came back, threw his clothes in, and shut the lid to the washing machine without realizing that Natasha had jumped into it while he had been away.”

Top 4-Family eat leather shoes to survive-Wow what a story

AT first the helicopter pilot couldn't believe his eyes and had to fly over the spot several times just to be sure. But there was no doubt, the small clearing in the forest, the long dark furrows in the ground, they could only have been made by human hands. The Siberian taiga is one of the last remaining wildernesses on earth - thousands of square kilometres of dense pine forest, rugged mountain valleys, white water rivers and impenetrable bogs. For years, scientists believed that this vast region was home to only the wolves, the odd wandering bear and whatever other animals capable of surviving the harsh climate.

No human beings could, or for that matter would want to, live in such a place. Or so they thought. It was 1979 and the Russian helicopter pilot had been searching for a spot to land a team of geologists when he spotted the little clearing high up on a mountainside some 150 miles from the nearest human settlement. Little did he know at the time but he had just discovered the home of the Lykovs - a family lost in time - somehow surviving in this brutal country without seeing another human being in over 40 years. The Lykovs were Old Believers - members of a fundamentalist Russian orthodox sect which had been persecuted since the days of Peter the Great in the early 18th century.When the Bolsheviks swept into power following the Russian revolution of 1917, many Old Believer communities fled to Siberia to escape religious persecution. Things were to get even worse during the Stalinist purges of the 1930s when Christianity and other religions were outlawed.

Top 3-Council lay asphalt around trailer parked-Smart Idea

THE resurfacing of a Camberwell street has left residents scratching their heads after Boroondara Council contractors laid asphalt around a parked trailer. When Halley Ave was recently upgraded, contractors failed to move a trailer legally parked on the road side. A resident, who asked not to be named, said the trailer had been parked in the street for up to a year and described the road works as a "complete farce’’. "I've spoken to council and because they say the trailer is legally parked and registered, there's nothing they can do,'' she said. "The whole street is unhappy about it. ’’She said she believed the trailer did not belong to anyone in the street. "Before it was parked in our street, it was parked in Range St around the corner,’’ she said. "This has been going on for two years. With all the rates we pay, the least they (the council) can do is send a letter to the owner and ask them to remove it from our street."

Council director of environment and infrastructure David Powell said when the works were carried out in January, the trailer’s owner had been away.

Top 2-Fantastic unknown maths magic tricks

A maths wizard has discovered the largest known prime number and it's an amazing 17 MILLION digits long. Curtis Cooper, of the University of Central Missouri, in the US found it by using hundreds of computers networked together.

You might not have to be a maths genius to know that a prime is a number greater than 1, which can only be divided by itself and 1, like 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, but to find one that big, GCSE maths would be a good start. However, in the numbers world, size doesn't matter when it comes to the fascinating and bizarre. Here Peter M Higgins, author and numbers man, reveals the magic behind something many of us struggle to get our heads around...

Hailstone numbers

There are many simple questions about numbers that no one has been able to answer.

Start with any number - if it is even divide it by 2, if odd multiply by 3 and add 1 then keep going, writing down the sequence of numbers that you generate. For example, starting with 7 we are led by these rules through the sequence:

It seems no matter what number you start with you eventually hit a 1. These sequences are called the "hailstone numbers" because, like hailstones, they go up and down a number of times before inevitably falling to Earth. However, no one has been able to prove that this has to happen every time.

Twos, threes & fives

Think of a number. Add 4, then multiply the result by 4. Subtract 8, then divide the result by 4. Finally take away your original secret number. The answer is 2.

You can do this even for huge numbers that your calculator could never cope with.

For example, try: 111,222,333,444,555,666,777, 888,987. Is it divisible by 3? In fact, if you're clever, you might be able to give the answer before summing the digits.

10% up then 10% down means you lose out

A worker's boss explains that in order to stay competitive he will have to cut his pay by 10% but he will allow the employee to work 10% more hours to make up for it, "so your pay will be maintained".

Afraid not! If the worker was being paid, say, £100, the 10% cut takes him down to £90. The 10% extra hours will add back on 10% of £90, which gives him £99. He is still £1 worse off. Beware percentages - you need to know what they refer to.

Never-ending squares

Square numbers (the products of numbers multiplied by themselves) and prime numbers are important and your internet security only works because the prime numbers never run out.

However, when it comes to primes, we still have to go out hunting for them, which is why at any one time there is always a world champion largest known prime.

'Mind reading' trick

Choose a single-digit number, multiply it by 9 and if the answer has two digits add them together.

Subtract 5 from what you have, giving you a number. Turn the number into a letter by the rule A = 1, B = 2 and so on. Think of a country beginning with your letter. Take the last letter of your country and think of an animal that begins with that letter. It's odds on that you have a kangaroo in Denmark.

It all adds up... to 9

1x9=09 =0+9=9

2x9=18 =1+8=9

3x9=27 =2+7=9

4x9=36 =3+6=9

5x9=45 =4+5=9

6x9=54 =5+4=9

7x9=63 =6+3=9

8x9=72 =7+2=9

10 x 9 = 90 = 9 + 0 = 9

Magic cube

Think you can conjure the right numbers? Try this little trick then.

Label the corners of the cube on the left with different numbers in the range 1 to 8 so that each face adds up to the same total.

The solution is on the right.

One, two, three

1 x 1 = 1

11 x 11 = 121

111 x 111 = 12321

1111 x 1111 = 1234321

11111 x 11111 = 123454321

111111 x 111111 = 12345654321

1111111 x 1111111 = 1234567654321

11111111 x 11111111 = 123456787654321

111111111 x 111111111 = 12345678987654321

1 x 9 + 2 = 11

12 x 9 + 3 = 111

123 x 9 + 4 = 1111

1234 x 9 + 5 = 11111

12345 x 9 + 6 = 111111

123456 x 9 + 7 = 1111111

1234567 x 9 + 8 = 11111111

12345678 x 9 + 9 = 111111111

123456789 x 9 +10 = 1111111111

Top 1-Man become a dad again aged 72

Nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow tonight announced he's going to be a DAD again - at the age of 72. The ‘King of Clubs’ left a private party at his Angels club stunned with the news that his 30-year-old wife Bella was expecting. The baby will be the couple’s first but his third - he has two children from a previous relationship: Karen, who is married and

lives in Florida, and Scott, who works for his company. Bella, Peter’s third wife who he wed in Barbados on Valentine’s Day in 2009, is due to have the baby in August. Tonight he took to the stage in his Soho den to tell stunned guests: “The reason we got you all here is because Bella and I are thrilled to announce we are expecting our first baby.” Later he told The Daily Mirror: “We are obviously overjoyed.”